Sounds part 5 of 5: Private Sounds
by Mounty Swiss
Summary: Katherine's Diary
1. Chapter 1

**Sounds Part 5: Private Sounds**

_Katherine's Diary_

**January 24****th****, 1994**

"Danny!" shouted Kitty, the teenage girl with Down's, who was on holidays at our estate. The two kids had been walking about one hundred yards ahead of us adults. Kitty's voice sounded frightened.

Ed Brown sprinted off, his long legs almost flying. So he still could race, and fast, I thought.

Eve started to run too, although considerably slower than her tall husband, and I pushed Robert's wheelchair towards the spot where Danny had vanished out of sight as fast as I could.

We reached Kitty and bent over the abyss. In a breakneck act Ed was climbing down the vertical rock face. Below him was his son hanging, motionless. Obviously his fall had been stopped by a small outcrop which had caught his jacket. But there was a tear in this jacket. How much longer would it hold the boy's weight? The abyss was deep. Danny was in mortal danger!

Now Ed reached the child. Hanging on to the outcrop he grabbed Danny before he fell further down.

"Eve, we need a rope. The Crawfords' estate is closest." Robert pointed towards the building. "And tell them to call an ambulance and the police!"

Eve is still quite an athletic woman, and she understood immediately what she would have to do to save her husband and son. Nevertheless I was surprised at how fast she could run in her pumps.

"Ed, how is he?" Robert shouted down.

"Unconscious," answered Ed. His voice sounded pressed and his breathing labored.

He clung to the wall, with one hand steadying himself on the outcrop and with the other pressing his child's body to his own.

He was still convalescent. Doubtlessly this effort would overexert his limited strength once more.

In the distance we saw that Eve was ringing the bell of the Crawfords'. _Hurry, Eve!_ I thought.

"Chief!"

"What is it, Ed?" I heard the alarm in my husband's voice.

"Can't... hold on... much longer."

_Oh my God, don't let them fall!_ I prayed.

I could almost see how Robert reflected feverishly about how he could help his friend. Yet his voice sounded very cool, "Don't move. I will throw my belt over you."

I understood what he had in mind, and I was sure that Ed Brown would figure it out too.

Quickly I helped Robert pull his leather belt from his pants. He looped it and, taking aim thoroughly, let it fall down onto Ed, around his shoulders. He hit his target perfectly. "Now you slip it over Danny's head and one arm, and fix it at the outcrop!"

Ed struggled to carry out the task. He had only two hands to hold himself, the boy and the belt...

Finally he managed.

Audibly my husband exhaled. He didn't ask if his friend could hang on now; the weakened man needed his breath to survive.

After what seemed an eternity Eve came back with a rope. Robert let one end down to Ed who fixed it around his son's chest. For a moment I feared that he would faint, now that he knew that Danny was safe.

"Ed!" shouted my husband, who must have been aware of this danger, and it sounded very harsh.

Brown looked up. "Look out that he doesn't bang into the rock!" commanded Robert - probably more because he wanted Ed to stay alert than because he could actually have done anything. Slowly he pulled the rope. For his strong arms the boy's eighty pounds were no problem at all.

Quickly Eve loosened the rope and together we laid the child onto the road. He moved his head – then he groaned.  
"Ouch!" he complained, palpating the bump on his head.

"Danny, can you hear me?" asked Eve worriedly.

He opened his eyes. "Why should I not hear you? I'm not deaf."

I could not suppress a smile. This autistic boy* was always so logical! Eve was at least as relieved as I. "Thank God!"

We heard the siren of an ambulance and a black and white up on the main road. I hurried towards them to show the rescuers the way. They would have to put Danny onto a stretcher since the path was too narrow for the vehicles.

Meanwhile my husband had let the rope down again. "Secure yourself now!" he said in a firm voice. Ed fumbled around with the rope. He had totally spent himself. Robert noticed that he couldn't manage with the knot anymore. Therefore he commanded, "Keep very still. The police will get you up."

It would have been far too dangerous to pull the exhausted man up alone, if he could not rely on the knot.

Danny protested when he was laid onto a stretcher. He could move his arms and legs without any problems. Still his mother and the paramedics insisted that he be examined in the hospital. Eve was allowed to ride in the ambulance with him.

A strong policeman, perfectly equipped, roped down to Ed. He talked to him patronizingly like to a child – or to a silly old man. "Come on, mister, let's get you out of here. Relax, I have everything under control..."

His partner secured the rescue from above, and together they managed to pull up our friend in no time, as if they did such things every day.

"It won't last long until the ambulance is back," said one of them to Robert, as if Ed were a piece of wood. He treated Robert with respect though since it was well known that he had helped the Sonoma police solve several crime cases.

Ed tried to preserve a rest of dignity. "Thank you for your help. I'm all right, I don't need an ambulance."

Robert wasn't quite sure about that, but he understood that Ed hated being pushed around.

"Thank you, gentlemen. We will manage," he said therefore.

The policemen nodded, happy that the job was already done, and left, not in the least interested in the circumstances of the accident.

"Danny was fully conscious when they left. I suppose he has just a bump on his head and probably a slight concussion, nothing to worry about," explained Robert.

Ed nodded. Obviously it took a load off his mind.

Kitty, who had been clinging to my hand for the last few minutes, approached the two men. "So sorry! Only pushed him a little for joke, because he said silly things! Didn't mean him to fall down!"

"It's not your fault, Kitty." Robert had been thinking about that for a while now. "This was a trap. Look, there is a hole in the shoulder of the road. It was covered with a very thin layer of veneer wood. I wonder what or who it was meant for..."

He had spoken to me, thinking that Ed was still standing behind him. But now he noticed that Ed was walking away, down the path. "Hey, what in blazes...?"

"Shall I run behind him and bring him back?" I asked. "Do you think he is somehow confused?"

"No, let him go. Ed's not someone to get confused over a simple accident which doesn't even have any serious consequences. He may want to be alone for a while."

"But Honey, he was so strange this morning..."

The Browns had asked if they could make up for the holidays they had missed right after Christmas**. The mild Sonoma climate would hopefully help Ed to get well. Two days before they arrived here the telephone had rung and Mrs. Granger had asked if the Browns could host Kitty*** for about two weeks since she had broken her leg and had to stay in the hospital, and since the girl's father and sister were in jail; Kitty had said that she wanted to stay with them.

Typically for them Eve and Ed had not been able to say no. Of course we had agreed that they bring her along. Where there is room for five, there is room for six as well. Kitty is a kind, cheerful girl, and we all thought that it would be good for Danny to have to socialize with another kid.  
Yet Danny's stamina in supporting the girl turned out to be all but great. Therefore Ed often takes care of her. He keeps playing easy games with her, trying to stimulate her abilities. He shows the patience of an angel. Maybe he also wants to prove to himself that he is still good for something, even though he can't work right now.

But this morning he had been depressed and uncharacteristically impatient. Eve had noticed it and to relieve him she had asked Kitty to join us in the kitchen.

"Something must have happened yesterday," agreed Robert. "Maybe I'd better follow him. Take Kitty home, will you?"

Later he told me how he found Ed sitting in the winter grass, leaning against a tree.  
It was far too cold for him to sit on the ground. His weakened immune system was not up to that yet.

"Is that your way of dealing with things now – just walking away from them?!" asked Robert sharply.

He read in Ed's face a trace of anger, which was better than no reaction at all. He waited a long time – by his standards – but he didn't get an answer.

"What in blazes happened yesterday – or this morning?" he asked finally annoyed.

Ed didn't look up. He took a deep breath, which still caused pain, but this time the pain was almost welcome, in a weird way. He felt that he somehow deserved it... that he deserved a punishment...

"Yesterday I was in Healdsburg, at the police station. I had applied for reserve deputy. Now they told me that they had got the Denver police doctor's report on me. They turned me down due to insurance and technical reasons."

All at once Robert understood. The medical report must have been devastating. "And you thought that if I became a special consultant, then you had to become one too?! When will you stop trying to copy me?"

Feeling that the dejected man could not cope with his usual rough tone he joked: "Don't you know that there is just one Robert T. Ironside who can't be copied?"

Dutifully Ed tried to smile a little, but he could fool neither Robert nor himself. "No, I don't want to be you. Just _somebody_."

Robert laid his hand onto his shoulder.

"Ed, you _are_ somebody, whether you have a paid work or not."

Ed looked away.

"I watched you over the last few days, my friend. You have a very special gift with handicapped children. It's obvious, not only with Danny, but also with Kitty. You always liked working with kids and with difficult youths."

Ed shook his head. "It's not that I don't know what to do with my life. I think it's being rejected – and then noticing that they were right. They were perfectly right not to accept me. I almost let my son fall today. It's this horrible weakness I can't live with. Without you Danny might be dead now." His breathing became erratic again, a sure sign that the thought stressed him. It just emphasized what he said.

"Calm down, will you? I could help you rescue Danny, but I can't help you breathe." Robert's voice was deliberately cool now. It was the way he had talked to the young sergeant Brown decades ago, and after all these years Ed was still conditioned to obey him.

To give him time to – hopefully – recover his breath Robert quietly talked on. "I haven't counted. But I suppose you have saved my life as often as I saved yours. That's what friends are for. And if I had kids they would be included in this arrangement. We were quite a team back in San Francisco, you, Mark, Eve and later Fran and me, and I think we still are. You will have to live with your limits as well as I have to with mine. But before you throw in the towel I want you to help me solve our case at hand. Just like old times."

For the first time Ed looked up, although he couldn't talk yet.

Robert answered the question in his eyes. He told him about the trap.

"Let's find out who set up that trap and for whom. Can you stand up? Use my chair as a support!"

* * *

The scene of the accident was a welcome place to take a break.

How had Ed climbed down there? There were only a few tufts of grass and minimal cracks in the rock to hold onto.

Robert saw his friend's face harden when he looked down the abyss again, and he divined what went on in his mind. _"Danny was so close to death because I wasn't strong enough to hold him..."_

Again Robert answered his unspoken thoughts, "Look at it the other way round for a change. Three weeks ago your life was hanging by a thread. Today you saved Danny's. And yes, he'd probably be dead _without_ you. I could not have done it... since before World War two, that is; since then I have been too heavy to climb down there."

When they reached the street I encountered them. I had gone to get the van. I think they were quite happy to climb in and being taken home.

Not much afterwards the phone rang. It was Eve. She asked if someone could come to Healdsburg and get her and Danny. He didn't need to stay in the hospital overnight.

Tonight was the first time in 1994 that Ed earnestly tried to finish his plate.

* * *

* See ff story "Patterns"

** See ff story "Christmas Carols", part 1 of "Sounds"

*** See ff story "Swoosh in the Press", part 4 of "Sounds"


	2. Chapter 2

**January 25****th****, 1994**

This morning I saw Ed doing push-ups against a wall. Obviously he was unaware that he was being watched, and I didn't want to embarrass him. But I told Robert about it. "Don't you think that it is too early for him to start to exercise?"

My husband shrugged his shoulders. "It bothers him to no end that he is so weak. He has been fit and athletic all his life. And yesterday he was feeling guilty because he wasn't strong enough to pull Danny's rescue through single-handedly. In a way I can understand him."

"I just hope he won't overdo it."

"He does the push-ups against a wall because he can't do them otherwise. He's a stubborn guy all right, but he will learn to respect his limits, I suppose, and this is a start. But we could help him. Let's go for walks every day. We could go see some of our neighbors. This would give him a chance for a break after half the time, and maybe we can find out something about the trap Danny fell into yesterday."

My smart husband – always so efficient!

Robert's choice of whom we would pay a call to today was logical: the Stravinskys, our neighbors to the north, since they were living next to the Crawfords, and their vineyard lay still at the same footpath. We left the Crawfords out since Bill Crawford might be still mad at Robert and Ed for the role they had played in the Christmas Eve Mass.

We left Danny and Kitty in John McCabe's care, since Danny had to lie in a dim room to make sure that his concussion would not have any aftermaths. John has started to work for us after New Year, and he has developed into a fine aide*.

The Stravinskys are always happy to see us. Of course we had to taste Mrs. Stravinsky's fresh blueberry muffins.

"Actually I had raisin muffins in mind, but since the day before yesterday I can't stand raisins anymore. You may not believe it – but our cat almost died of raisins! Freddy, our tomcat, likes strolling around. He must have eaten some raisins. The vet said that they were hidden in some meat; otherwise he would not have munched them. Did you know that raisins are poisonous for cats and dogs? The vet said that we were lucky that it had been Freddy and not Daisy, our dog, because cats usually notice things which are not good for them, while young dogs tend to eating anything..."

The Stravinskys are extremely nice people, but everybody – and particularly the men – was happy to be out in the fresh air again and away from chatty Mrs. Stravinsky.

Since we are early tonight I hope for some quality alone time with my dear husband...

* * *

**January 26****th****, 1994**

This has been an exciting day again!

In the morning Danny did some of his annoying violin practicing.  
Kitty listened patiently for a while, but then she got bored and looked for something more interesting to do. She found it in Robert's study. She decided to establish order in his papers. Since she can't read but knows some letters, she put everything in nice stacks, ordered by the first letter she recognized. There were some very boring ones – without any pictures – hence she started to decorate them with nice drawings...

In the afternoon we wanted to visit the Derringers. Yet suddenly a flood of earthy water barred our way.  
We heard a child cry, the small grandchild of the Derringers', as it turned out. Lucy was visiting her grandparents with her mother.  
When we came closer to her mother, Jo-Beth White-Derringer, she explained to us in desperation that Lucy's little dog had been carried away by the water.

Ed, the incurable gentleman who can't see a child cry, hurled himself into the water. For him, it was only knee-deep, but it still almost knocked him over.

"Come back, you crackpot!" shouted Robert. Of course Ed didn't listen. He is still not really aware of the fact that he should start budgeting his own resources. He always gives everything there is. Maybe that's the consequence of the training Robert gave him decades ago...

Amazingly, he managed to catch up with the little dog. He grabbed it, but was badly rewarded: The doggie seemed to hold him responsible for this involuntary bath and tried to scratch and bite its rescuer. It was very obvious that Ed hasn't got Robert's ease with dogs – not by a long shot!  
It looked a little odd when Ed finally waded back to us, wet up to his hips, and holding the small animal in his outstretched hands...

But when Lucy hugged her darling, not caring about becoming wet herself, we all knew that the world was in order again.

Of course we cancelled our visit to the Derringers.  
Eve went home with the kids and Ed and forced him to take a very hot bath. Yet when she wanted to put him to bed with several hot-water bottles he became mutinous. He sat down with Danny and Kitty and invented a quiz for them where both of them had the same chance of winning. The combination of questions ranged from brands of makeup to astrophysics.

I have to admit that I was a little angry with him: Will this man ever learn to think of himself – for his wife's and son's sake?!

I went with Robert to investigate the scene – not a crime scene this time, but a scene where somebody had made a mistake which could have caused a lot of troubles. Escorted by the Derringers, Bill Crawford, his wife and her dog, which had luckily escaped the flood, he found out that above the Crawfords' estate someone had mixed up the barriers in the water channels. Therefore the flood had gushed over the Crawfords' and the Derringers' vineyards. Fortunately, at this time of the year this caused hardly any damage. It would have been much worse in summer or in autumn. Nobody was hurt and thanks to our unreasonable Ed even Lucy's little dog had been saved. Finally it was a blessing in disguise.

Of course Robert advised the other vinery owners on how to restore the correct order of the barriers. The rest of the problem – the dirt on the two vineyards – will solve itself within a month or two.

* * *

_* See ff story 'Sounds Part 1 of 5: Christmas Carols'_


	3. Chapter 3

**January 27****th****, 1994**

Today Kitty cleaned the kitchen floor. To this purpose she emptied a bucket full of cleaning water over it. She then spaced the water out evenly. It took Eve and me the better part of the forenoon to clean the bottoms of my kitchen furniture.

Danny was irritated that a person who was supposed to be older than him could do such silly things. Gently Eve asked him if he would have the idea of cleaning a floor for somebody _at all_.

He stared perplexedly at her. "Why on earth should I do that?"

Patiently Eve sat down with him and tried to explain to him the value of giving somebody a treat.  
Danny tried hard to understand her. "But how should I know when somebody wants to have their floor cleaned? Wouldn't they be hurt if I did it just after they did it themselves?" Sometimes he thought that he understood what people wanted. Then he had to notice that they were beyond comprehension altogether. This was definitely not his day...

It was a relief for everybody when Ellen Crawford phoned. She caught a cold yesterday. Now she asked if 'our sweet children' could walk her dog, Christmas.

Now, that was a chore they were able to carry out together and without any further trouble, or so we thought...

"Me, walk a dog?! Never in my life!" Danny shouted and started to crawl under my freshly cleaned kitchen table.

"But Danny, Christmas is hardly bigger than a Matchbox car!" Robert tried to encourage him.

From under the table Danny answered, "Does it matter if you are killed by a hand grenade or by an atomic bomb?!"

Ed tried to suppress a grin. Somehow his son's logic seemed to make sense to him.

"I can walk a dog!" cried Kitty. "We had one when I was little."

It was agreed that Kitty would walk the dog and Danny would escort her to make sure that she found her way back.

The scene played vividly in my imagination: Carefree Kitty skipping ahead with the little dog, Danny two paces behind her, ready to flee, torn between panic and the sense of duty he must have learned from Ed Brown...

When they came back two hours later everybody had cooled down.

"No problems this time?" asked Robert suspiciously. He had stopped believing in miracles, as far as the smooth living with children was concerned.

"Yes and no," explained Danny in his precise way. "We came home without any accidents, which is quite noteworthy these days, isn't it? But Christmas insisted on walking on the shoulder of the road, and we were a little anxious because of my recent accident..."

He stopped abruptly. Even for an autistic child it was obvious that he must have said something shocking, since both his father and Chief Ironside stared at him. And Dad and Chief Ironside were never shocked, were they?

Robert turned around. "Come on, Ed, what are you waiting for?" he barked.

Eve, who was just coming back from the bathroom, glanced perplexedly behind them. "What's the matter? Where are they heading?" she asked.

Outside the engine of the van was started.

"The hole where Danny fell on Monday was on the shoulder of the road. Usually nobody walks there. Now the kids tell us that Christmas, Ellen Crawford's dog, likes walking there. That trap must have been meant for him. I suppose Robert and Ed are driving over to the Crawfords'."

* * *

Robert told me what happened there:

When they arrived at the Crawfords' estate, they heard the barking of the little dog in the garden shed. They hurried to get there.

Bill Crawford was raising a roof batten over his head, aiming at Christmas, who was tethered to an old table. Obviously he wanted to kill the dog with it!

"Ed, stop him!" shouted Robert.

Ed tackled the older man, using the surprise effect to knock the batten out of his hand. He could not get in a fight with Crawford; he would not have stood a chance against him. But he used his judo skills to turn Bill's arm in his back and then force him against the wall. The moves did themselves automatically.

Robert rolled over. With Christmas' dog leash he tied Bill's hands together.

Then he made him sit down.

Ed's breathing was labored, and he bent over the table to steady himself and take the pressure off his lungs.

The dog started to bark happily – Ellen Crawford was entering.

She ignored her little darling as well as her husband and Robert. Instead she turned to Ed. "Chief Brown – calm down, please." Her voice was full of concern. She laid her hand onto the small of his back. "Sit down. Try to breathe slowly. I know that it is a horrible feeling. You are doing fine, sir. It'll pass..."

Surprised, Robert looked at her. He had never taken her seriously.

"I was a nurse before I got married. And I have seen your picture on TV, Chief Brown. Can you manage?"

Ed nodded, for some reason feeling ashamed.

Ellen turned towards Robert now. "What happened?"

Robert felt too much respect for her to lie to her. "Your husband wanted to kill your dog."

At first he had wanted to feed him raisins to poison him, then he had set a trap for him, then he caused a flood, and when nothing worked he used a roof batten.

She nodded, not really surprised. "He becomes awful jealous when he has drunk."

Bill had started snoring softly.

"And now he will sleep until tomorrow morning."

There was an old couch in a corner of the small room. Ellen pulled her husband standing and guided him there. He followed her like a sleepwalker. She helped him lie down.

Robert rolled over to him and loosened his bonds.

"He won't need these then. You don't think that he is dangerous now, do you?"

"No, he's not. But he may be after his next helping of alcohol."

Ironside sensed that Ed felt embarrassed. He wanted his friend out of this place.

"We should talk about everything tomorrow – say, nine a.m. Do you agree?"

"I would be very happy about it."

Ed stood up. He had his breathing a little better under control now.

"Let's go," said Robert.

"Thank you very much for saving my dog."

* * *

One thing about this wild story confused me a bit. "Robert, why did you encourage Ed to attack Bill? Yesterday you tried to stop him from running into the water because you thought that he wasn't up to it."

"Firstly he was the only one who could prevent Crawford from killing the dog without a bloodshed. My only alternative would have been to shoot him, since he would not have been able to stop his momentum. And secondly... Ed is really not in great shape physically. But this was basically a piece of routine police work. Ed has been an excellent policeman for decades now. He knows the moves in his sleep. And you have seen that he is still fast. Therefore it was only a question of mental strength. I was sure that he could do it, but I wasn't sure if Ed knew he could do it. Now he knows."

I had to hug my husband tightly. "Oh, Robert! You are the best friend he could have. You managed to give him some self-esteem back. I love you so, so much."

"How much?"

"Shall I show you how much?"

"Don't answer a question with a counter-question!" he joked.

* * *

_Author's note:_

_Have you noticed that there is a new Ironside writer among us? Check out "Cold Cases" by Briroch. It is in the crossover section (Ironside – Streets of San Francisco)._


	4. Chapter 4

**January 28****th****, 1994**

At nine a.m. Robert and Ed arrived at the Crawfords'.

Ellen had explained to her husband that they had not reported to the police what he had done - yet. Therefore he was grateful, if a little suspicious. Would they still do it for what had happened to Danny? Now that he was sober, the police sounded like Dracula to him.

He knew Robert all right, and he had met Ed at the Christmas Eve Mass, but when he saw how thin he had become he was rather confused. "Don't tell me that YOU managed to subdue me!"

"He did!" confirmed Robert in a cool tone. "He could do it because of the alcohol you had in your system."

"All right, pal – try me now!" He put his elbow onto the table, looking challengingly at Ed.

Robert nodded at his friend. "Humor him."

Ed understood what Robert was up to, but he didn't like it at all. He knew how this arm-wrestling competition would end. Couldn't the Chief come up with a better idea?!

Reluctantly he sat down.

Bill only needed a few seconds to push his arm down onto the tabletop. But instead of triumphing he became very thoughtful.

"If the booze makes that much of a difference – if a hat rack like you was able to beat me when I was drunk... then I must really quit that stuff. Any suggestions about how I could to that?"

"Do you want to try the AA? There is also the possibility of medication, Antabus," offered Robert.

Surprisingly enough, Bill nodded his agreement. Robert seemed to impress him with his natural authority. Ellen looked as if it were Christmas and Valentine's Day at once.

"You will have to fix the shoulder of the path you have damaged, and it would be decent to help the Derringers with the stones in their vineyard."

"That's natural."

Absentmindedly Ed was rubbing his wrist. _Oh Lord, help me forgive him!_ he thought. Eve was teaching him how to live as a Christian, and it was the way he wanted to go. But sometimes it was awful tough. "Why don't you buy a second dog – a bitch?"

Everybody looked at him flabbergasted. Actually it was the logical thing to suggest: If Bill was jealous, then he needed a dog of his own.

"Why not?" grinned Crawford. "But a real dog, not such a motorized sausage like Christmas. A German shepherd or a Husky. That would be MY dog then."

His wife hugged him, "Bill, if this works... for me that would the best thing since the invention of the washing machine!"

Bill laughed, then he patted Ed on the back so hard that he almost doubled over. "Listen, pal – you taught me a lesson today, now let me teach you one too: You are a great guy. Don't let it get to you if you feel rock bottom. I will quit the bottle and you will get back on your feet. Agreed?"

* * *

After lunch two unexpected visitors showed up: it was the sheriff of Healdsburg together with a sergeant. Ed was in the cellar putting up some shelves with Danny and John while Eve helped Kitty fix a tear in her dress; therefore only Robert was there when I invited them into our living room.

"We are here to thank you, Mr. Ironside. We had a self-indictment this morning: Mr. William Crawford admitted to being responsible for some damage to the shoulder of a private path in this area and to some minor damage to his neighbor's vineyard. Nobody reported that there were any problems here, therefore we didn't investigate them. Now Mr. Crawford told us that you found out about them. We want to thank you, sir, for solving this case."

"Chief Brown did as much to solve it as I did. In fact the _physical_ part was his department alone."

The sheriff had heard about that, but he was rather embarrassed... after all he had turned the man down for _physical_ reasons.

"You don't think that we could ask Chief Brown if he would apply as a volunteer now? Or maybe as a consultant?"

"He won't stay here with his family. They will move to the San Bernardino Mountains." Eve's parents had a vacation home there, and they had agreed that the Browns move in there permanently. They wanted to home-school Danny and try to live a peaceful life far from the agitation and pressure of a city.

"You could give him a letter of recommendation; your colleagues down there may be grateful for the help of a competent criminologist."

The sheriff looked relieved. Probably it was easier to write than to have to face someone he had wronged.

* * *

Finally Harry Granger's ex-wife came to get Kitty.

"No, I wanna stay here! I wanna marry Danny!" shouted the girl who felt the love-filled atmosphere in Ironside's estate and in the Brown family.

Danny tried to say something nice. "I don't have the time to wed now. But you can ask me again in…," he calculated quickly, "in fifteen years!"

While Danny went to wash the pink spot off his cheek Robert explained to John that nobody is holding him responsible for Ed's health problems*. John is just starting to learn how forgiveness works. Now he tries to be helpful to everybody... and he gets a new lease of life finding out how rewarding this is.

Our three proficient carpenters were hungry, and we sat together for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

The three of them were in a very cheerful mood. John's strong arms, Ed's knowledge and Danny's accuracy had worked well together. "You can store 100 table tennis balls on our shelves and not one will roll down!" boasted Danny.

"But Danny, Robert doesn't intend to store any table tennis balls there!" objected Eve.

Danny cocked his head the way he had seen his father do it – and it looked exactly the way Robert does it! "Well, maybe not now. But who ever knows what Chief Ironside will do next?!"

* * *

* See ff story "Christmas Carols"

_Author's notes:_

"Lemonpig" corrected this story. Thank you, dear friend!

You, dear readers and reviewers, needed a lot of patience with this long, unusual story. Thanks for staying with me! The next story will take us back to the sixties, promise.


End file.
